25. Giant Rat Atlas

On the way into the park.

Lin Zichen felt the decaying flesh he was carrying was a bit cumbersome, so he opened the bag and threw the meat into a bush by the roadside.

The rotting Phantom Squid Meat was emitting an increasingly heavy and pungent odor, the mere smell of which was nauseating, rendering it unnecessary to keep any longer.

It could only serve as waste put to use, returning it to the nurturing embrace of nature, offering a feast to the saprophytes of the ecosystem.

As for explaining it to his parents when he got home, he'd just say he ran into some Heretic Believers causing trouble, and in the chaos, he accidentally lost the meat.

Moreover, to avoid unnecessary trouble in the future, if he were to buy Exotic Beast Meat to devour again, he'd have to figure out a way to have someone else purchase it on his behalf...

Lost in thought, Lin Zichen followed the security team into the interior of the park.

At a glance, a purple-blue smoke still lingered in the air, but it had mostly dissipated, revealing large swaths of scorched earth still smoking.

Moving closer to inspect, one could see a pit with a radius of about one meter at the centermost point.

Approaching the pit to peer inside, he saw a completely charred corpse.

It was the Mechanically Modified Human that had transformed into the giant mutant rat.

Lin Zichen was somewhat surprised.

Such a powerful laser cannon, yet it hadn't completely erased this Rat Man, only blasted it into a charred carcass?

It seemed that Genetic Fusion was still formidable.

"Unrelated personnel, please keep away. Student, please quickly leave this area!"

At the edge of the pit, a security officer saw Lin Zichen standing on the side and immediately shouted at him to leave.

As soon as these words were spoken, the captain of the security team said, "Let him stay. We'll have to take him back to the station to give a statement anyway."

"Give a statement?"

The security officer was a bit puzzled, not understanding why Lin Zichen needed to go back to the station to give a statement.

He didn't know that the hostages had managed to escape from the hands of the Heretic Believer thanks to Lin Zichen's secret intervention.

Right then, Lin Zichen's phone rang; it was a call from Shen Qinghan.

As soon as he answered, Shen Qinghan's voice, full of worry, came through immediately.

"Xiao Chen, it's been over ten minutes, and you haven't come back yet. Did something happen on the way?"

"It's nothing, don't worry. That Rat Man has been dealt with by the Mechanically Modified Human. I stayed behind to check out the scene. You wait in the convenience store, I'll be back soon."

"Should I come to find you?"

"No, it doesn't feel too safe. I'm coming to get you now, wait for me, I'll be there in a moment."

Lin Zichen quickly hung up the phone and ran to pick up Shen Qinghan.

In just a short while, he brought Shen Qinghan over to the park.

Shen Qinghan looked at the scorched ground in front of her, her face full of surprise.

It was hard for her to imagine what had just happened here to cause everything to turn out like this.

At that moment, the people from the security team had already removed the body from the pit and were carrying it on a stretcher to be placed in the trunk of the security vehicle.

Luckily, the trunk of the security vehicle was usually large enough to hold various types of sizable equipment, otherwise, the stretcher wouldn't have fit.

Lin Zichen, observing the completely charred corpse, recalled that the security team captain had mentioned something about the Rat King Gene when he had called for backup earlier.

He speculated that the charred Heretic Believer most likely had the Rat King Gene fused into him.

And the Rat King Gene was certainly a type of Exotic Beast Gene.

So... could I devour the Rat King Gene from the corpse?

Lin Zichen suddenly thought of this.

After considering it, he felt it should be possible and decided to take the opportunity to touch the corpse when getting off at the security station to confirm his suspicion.

Soon, everything at the scene was dealt with.

The captain of the security team looked towards Lin Zichen and asked, "We're going back to the security station. Do you two know where it is? Can you ride your bicycles over?"

"Our bicycle chain broke, we can't ride it."

"In that case, come back with us in the security vehicle."

"Can you take our bicycles as well?"

"Sure, go fetch them."

"Thank you."

After a brief exchange, Lin Zichen went out to push their broken bicycle over.

Since the trunk was full, a tall security officer used a rope to secure their bicycle to the top of the vehicle.

Afterward, they all headed to the security station by car.

In the car, Lin Zichen didn't see Teacher Strawberry, figuring she must have already been taken by the security to the hospital to treat her wounds.

On the way, since Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan were both minors, the captain of the security team had the two notify their parents to come to the security station.

Both of them called to inform their parents.

...

About ten minutes passed.

The car finally arrived at the police station.

After getting out, Lin Zichen took the initiative to help lift the Heretic Believer's body from the back of the car.

When the officers weren't looking, he stifled his revulsion and touched the body, to see if he could absorb the Rat King gene from within.

To his surprise, he found that he actually could!

Genes are the essence of life, or at least one kind of it!

Without a second thought, he decisively chose to absorb it.

[You have absorbed a strand of the "Giant Exotic Rat's" life essence]

[Giant Exotic Rat Compendium: 5%]

5%? That much?

Looking at the progress bar behind the compendium, Lin Zichen felt mildly surprised.

However, more than the progress bar, he was interested in what abilities he might gain after opening the Giant Exotic Rat's compendium.

On careful consideration, aside from having eight eyes and somewhat tough skin, giant exotic rats didn't seem to have any particularly special abilities.

Of course, it could be that humans lacked sufficient understanding of the giant exotic rats.

After all, giant exotic rats had only appeared in human society recently and still carried much unknown potential.

"Forget it, there's no use thinking too much about it, I'll know everything when the compendium's progress bar is full."

With that thought, Lin Zichen specifically glanced at the body on the stretcher.

Seeing no change, it seemed that losing the Rat King gene didn't have any effect.

Of course, it could also be like the Phantom Squid Meat from earlier, where there's a certain delay.

...

In the following time.

Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan sat together to give their statements.

The captain of the security team was very interested in Lin Zichen's heroic action and wanted to know how he managed to injure the Heretic Believer with a stone.

After all, the distance was somewhat long, and the visibility wasn't great at night.

Under such conditions, to accurately hit the Heretic Believer's knife-holding hand with a stone was not something a middle school student should be capable of.

Lin Zichen didn't want to reveal too much of his abilities, so he gave the excuse he had already prepared, saying he used a slingshot.

"Where is that slingshot?"

The captain of the security team asked suspiciously.

Without even blinking, Lin Zichen calmly replied, "I accidentally lost it while fleeing the scene."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm very sure."

Lin Zichen replied without a moment's hesitation.

The captain of the security team nodded and didn't ask further.

Soon, the statement was completed.

At that time, the parents of Lin Zichen and Shen Qinghan had arrived at the police station.

Both sets of parents looked anxious; none of them had expected their children to encounter trouble with Heretic Believers just by going out at night.

Fortunately, the outcome was fortunate, and both kids were unharmed.

Otherwise, none of the parents would have been able to bear it.

After a brief chat with his parents, Lin Zichen turned to the captain of the security team and asked:

"Excuse me, when can I apply for my reward for the act of courage?"

"Right now, if you go for a fingerprint comparison, and once the results come back confirming everything is correct, I can apply for your reward in the system,"

the captain of the security team answered.

Having understood the process, Lin Zichen followed a young officer to do the fingerprint comparison.

Seeing this scene, both families' parents were somewhat bemused.

A reward for an act of courage?

What is that?

Both parents were aware that their children had encountered some Heretic Believer-related unrest but were unaware that Lin Zichen had acted heroically to save someone.

It wasn't until they asked the captain of the security team and looked at the statement that they understood what had happened.

"Your son is truly remarkable, having the courage and composure to face a crisis head-on in middle school, he's a little hero,"

a passing female officer praised.

After hearing this, Zhang Wanxin merely smiled politely at her, feeling no joy in her heart.

She didn't want Lin Zichen to be a hero; she just wanted him to grow up safe and sound.

...

PS: Bowls out, begging for monthly tickets and recommendation votes!